Haul Retailing Through Usage Expectations

The COVID-19 pandemic changed consumers’ feelings about a cough. Writing in The New York Times Magazine, Mireille Silcoff considered how those changes were reflected in ads for Halls cough drops. With voiceovers like, “You don’t cough! You don’t show defeat!,” the brand’s pre-pandemic commercials appealed to the American value of grit. But once COVID-19 infected our thinking, the tone moved away from staying tough and toward staying away. Society largely expected us to isolate our cough so we wouldn’t risk contaminating others. Scenes of music solos and yoga poses populated the commercials.
     There also were changes in the product format, Ms. Silcoff notes. Halls Minis, of tiny size and sans the potentially noisy unwrapping accompanying the traditional lozenge, ease the cougher achieving relief surreptitiously. No need for social embarrassment when violating isolation expectations.
     The Halls cough drop example can remind us to consider modifying our retailing practices to accommodate changes in social expectations. Avoiding embarrassment is a powerful consumer motivation. This applies not only to product format and product advertising, but also to point-of-purchase.
     A set of studies at Northern Kentucky University and University of Tennessee concludes that shoppers who fear embarrassment about the items they’re about to purchase will buy additional items to serve as masks. The researchers point out the profitability advantages in letting the embarrassment rein. I see it differently. The basket total may be higher with all those masking items, but a customer who is embarrassed in your store is less likely to come back again to fill another basket.
     As a kindness to your customers, have your store staff think through which items might set up purchase embarrassment. Stock those items on shelves which have limited exposure, such as in small alcoves, rather than on endcaps. This is particularly useful when purchase of an additional item makes things even more embarrassing. In the Kentucky/Tennessee studies, toilet paper wasn’t a sensitive item to buy unless the purchase also included anti-diarrhea meds. To promote the items in these less visible areas, you could include store locations or aisle numbers in ads or on store signage in other areas.
     Do position adjacent to the potentially embarrassing categories items which give an opposite impression. Next to the anti-gas tablets, feature fine spices, and next to the foot deodorant, offer a pedometer which measures running distance.
     Other research indicates that dimming the lights in those sales areas could help.

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